Diandra Interviews The Silk War: Releasing Your Inner Sylvia Plath
I love this interview with Silk War because I emotional honesty and wisdom can be one and the same. Every artist will say they use music as self-reflection, but the questions remains whether they use those reflections to grow. Honestly! How many times have seen your own flaws and actually changed or worked on them? For The Silk War, music’s usefulness is not in how you reflect upon yourself, but how you take those reflections better yourself. In essence, music is like spiritual surgery, but if you never follow-up and take the proper methods to heal, what was the point of getting cut? In our interview, they, Alexandra Blair [singer] and James Mullen [producer] discuss how their new album, Coming Over, cut them open lyrically and emotionally.
Diandra: Sylvia Plath’s works can be, often, about the emotional pitfalls, like solitude, of “growing up.” How do you see your music as a way to self-check how you are growing as a person?
The Silk War: To “self-check” is really to lie in bed with despair, and to deep-dive into the part of the mind that begs to be forgotten. To think and create through your problems is truly the only way to grow. Our music is introspective, it urges the listener to become vulnerable with themselves because of how vulnerable we are. The depression, the anger, the constant questioning, these are all things that are pivotal to the human condition in order to bloom and to become the best person you possibly can be. If a song that we are writing does not fully express how broken we are, if it does not pull the heart in several directions at once, then it is not good enough because it does not push us to grow. We will always rewrite until we are sure that we are pushing ourselves outside of what is comfortable.
Diandra: Solitude is a strange bedfellow. It can bring breakdowns and breakthroughs. What is an epiphany you had either about life, music, or yourself when you were lonely?
The Silk War: Solitude is tricky because it is the love that I lust after and the one that I long to get away from all at the same time. I often find myself alone in a crowded room, longing to be alone with no one around me, yet as soon as I am truly alone all I want is find my way back to a crowded room. Solitude and loneliness are not synonymous to me, however, there is always an over-arching feeling that I have never been able to hide away from. I am privy to a constant anxiety that holds the throat only to push weight onto the heart always. I’m not sure if I’ve ever experienced an epiphany, but I will say that I have learned to accept the responsibility that comes with needing to be lonely or alone or both because this is the only time that it is possible to create, to write with abandon, without judgement. There is a responsibility that one has to oneself to allow oneself to be lonely or alone or both because without this luxury, you will never be able to find who you really are.
Diandra: You have said that Come Evening, like Plath’s works, helps listeners maneuver and feel comfortable with the fact that they despair. Which do you find more vulnerable a state of sadness or joy? Why?
The Silk War: I find the most vulnerability in joy, mostly because I constantly question its existence. It always seems so far away. I always assume that joy will disappear, and it always does, whereas I find comfort in knowing that despair will always be in the back of my mind, behind every loving whisper, every conquest, and every gesture. To feel joy is to give yourself to others and allow the inactivity and numbness of happiness to settle in. It scares me to death.
Diandra: If you could do an opposite album of Come Evening, Come Day, what would it be like in sound, themes, and messages?
The Silk War: I honestly have to commend you on such an exceptional question. The first thing that comes to mind has everything to do with the danger and sadness that is waking up after staying up all night. The blinding light that makes you realize you have to go to sleep after staying up for hours with people you’ll never see again, only to wake up later in the day knowing you have wasted it. Therein lies the real depression, the complete abandonment of purpose and engagement. Come Day would sound ethereal yet dissonant. It would urge the listener to not waste their days as I have done so many times.
Diandra: If you could turn a movie or tv show into an album, which would it be, why, and from what angle?
The Silk War: We’ve actually discussed writing a concept album to Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. We would basically re-score it, of course still paying a subtle homage to one of our biggest influences, Bernard Herrmann. We would try to do a real version of what people have done with Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and The Wizard of Oz, whereby if you watch the film on mute the album syncs seamlessly, effortlessly. Vertigo is the perfect film for it because the visuals are magnanimously emotional and stunning.
Diandra: If you could turn one of your songs into a movie, which would it be, what would be the premise, and who would you cast?
Silk War: We would probably have to say “Little Souls,” the first track on our debut album, Come Evening. The lyrics and the musical tension would pair well with a gritty, old school New York City film such as Scorsese’s Mean Streets or After Hours. The premise would shed light on all of the insignificant people in New York that claw their way to success without true purpose or creativity. The ones that feel that they have more to offer the world than they are actually worth. James would probably choose Gary Oldman. I would pick 1960’s-era Barbara Steele if I could.
Diandra: Your songs also discuss rebelling agents systems and people that suppress us. Do you feel music is integral to any rebel or rebellion and why?
Silk War: Music plays a huge role in both rebellion and shoving the true issues at hand to the forefront. Taking into consideration the effects of early rock & roll, Bob Marley, early hip-hop, etc., it is easy to see that (if used properly) a serious message can reach those who otherwise would maybe not have been so engaged. It can inspire a common cause, and most importantly, find a common humanity to break free of the chains that bind.
Diandra: What is your favorite childhood memory with music?
Alexandra: My favorite childhood memory has to be singing with my father at the dinner table. Having struggled with a stutter my entire life, I remember the first time realizing that singing with him would make it all disappear. My stutter no longer shook the hands of those I met before I did; I felt free. After that, I started writing lyrics incessantly about the rain, wanting to sound like the rain. That is where my desire to disappear in plain sight began to bloom.
James: Seeing my first punk hardcore show at 13 years old instantly drew me into music. I think I formed my band within a couple of weeks of seeing that show, way before any of us know how to play instruments. I’m sure it was torture for my parents but there was no looking back for me. The fire had been lit.
Diandra: A lot of your tracks detail the feelings of waiting for something to com or feeling isolated by something that has come for someone else. What do you feel you are still waiting for in life versus what do you feel you have now that you once waited for? Was the latter worth the wait?
The Silk War: I feel as though I am still waiting for the words that I am meant to write, the songs I am meant to perform. I am waiting for time to fulfill itself, to play bigger shows, to be noticed and understood by larger and larger audiences, and to make a difference for those who are different. I once waited to find a partner to write music with, someone that I never had to speak to in order to communicate with, a familiar. I found that in James and I could not be more grateful. It was worth the wait, but it has also just begun.
Diandra: There was a certain level of kismet to how you all formed. Do you feel that not only music was your destiny but doing music together was, as well?
The Silk War: James and I both do not believe in destiny or fate. We believe in the responsibility of freedom, of earning through putting in the work, and, of course, the occasional snippet of blind luck. I think we’re victims of both.
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